MISSION CONTROL CENTER
STS-62 Status Report #8
Monday, March 7, 1994, 3 p.m. CST

Columbia and crew sailed through the fourth day of their two-week mission 
on schedule with no problems to report. 

The crew spent  the first half of the day again working with the Middeck 
0-Gravity Dynamics Experiment, or MODE, and a model of a truss structure 
which may be used on a future space station.  The truss model, set up to 
float free in the middeck, was analyzed to determine its behavior in 
weightlessness.  It will be the subject of more test runs as the flight 
progresses. 

Two of the crew -- Pilot Andy Allen and Mission Specialist Sam Gemar -- 
had the afternoon off, as will each of their crewmates periodically as 
the mission progresses due to its long duration.  STS-62, as planned, 
will be the second longest Shuttle flight ever.  The other crew members 
each took a turn exercising during the last part of the day. 

Around the clock, experiments with the U.S. Microgravity Payload-2, the 
Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology-2, the Space Shuttle 
Backscatter Ultraviolet instrument and the Limited Candidate Duration 
Materials Exposure experiments all continue to operate, many of them 
being controlled by scientists on the ground. The SSBUV instrument has 
been operating since the first day of the flight, and plans were made by 
its ground controllers today to attempt to detect sulphur dioxide 
emissions from volcanoes in Central America.  The objective of the 
observations by SSBUV are to investigate whether such emissions low in 
the atmosphere are detectable from orbit.  SSBUV's measurements in 
general are used to fine-tune satellites that monitor the ozone and other 
gases in the Earth's atmosphere. 

Columbia is in very good mechanical condition and work in Mission Control 
has focused on assisting scientists as they continue their studies. 

The crew began eight hours of sleep today at 3:53 p.m. central and will 
awaken at 11:53 p.m. for Day Five of STS-62.